FERN HILL ESTATES:
is a small hamlet of about 30 stylish modern houses, most on 1-acre plots and all with swimming pools and colourful tropical gardens, on the tranquil, jungly western slope of Mt Nevis overlooking two sparkling miles of the Caribbean Sea towards the sunset and Nevis's sister island, St Kitts.
A 5-minute drive away is Pinney's Beach, a long, wide stretch of white sand that is often completely deserted even in the high season except for the plummeting pelicans and a fishing boat or two. Pinney's is home to seven simple little open-air bistros (including the famous Sunshine's Bar) as well as a smart French restaurant, the Coconut Grove, and a luxurious Four Seasons resort with three restaurants, a huge white beach, calm, protected ocean swimming, two pools, tennis courts, shops, a spa, and an immaculate 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course.
Nevis's capital, Charlestown, a 10-minute drive from Fern Hill, is a charming little village with buildings dating from the17th Century.
CHARLESTOWN AND THE GREAT HOUSES:
Among the old buildings of Charlestown is the old Bath Hotel, now the main government offices, which was the height of luxury in the 18th Century and a mecca for European tourists, among them the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who sailed the Atlantic to bathe in the hot springs which are still open to the public at Bath village.
Charlestown has two museums: one commemorating Admiral Horatio Nelson, who married a pretty young local widow, Fanny Nisbet, here in 1787; the other the 1757 birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, who was to emigrate to the United States when he was 15 and became one of the USA's founding fathers and its first Secretary of the Treasury.
Among the many delights of Nevis are the Great Houses of the old sugar plantations, some of them in ruins, others now elegant, picturesque hotels: the Montpelier, the Hermitage and the Nisbet. And the island is perfect for lovers of walking, hiking, horse riding, sailing, fishing, scuba diving and water skiing.
RESTAURANTS, BISTROS AND MUSIC:
Our favourite restaurants near Fern Hill include the Gallipot (delicious lobster and fresh fish caught by the chef himself), the Double Deuce, The Yachtsman Grill and the Nisbet Beach Club, where a steel pan group plays throughout Sunday lunch.
Nevis is suffused with music: the bouncy reggae and calypso rhymths that waft from balconies all over Charlestown; the steel pan bands; the traditional string bands that play simple, haunting melodies on their homemade instruments; the Tuesday night guitar-and-drums jam session at the Oualie Beach Hotel, where everyone is encouraged to join in, if only to shake the maraccas or tambourine; the fabulous local rock band, Kasanova, whose lead singer has a voice like an angel, that plays on the beach at the Nisbet Plantation until late every Thursday night.
At times, in fact, it seems that Nevis must have been the musical, magical island that inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest: 'If music be the food of love, play on.'
